Marta and her Brazil teammates celebrate the team’s second goal against the United States in Hangzhou. (Greg Baker/Associated Press)

Almost everything that could have gone wrong did. The United States again struggled to possess the ball against a technically superior team. Set pieces were unproductive. Left with no service, Abby Wambach and Heather O’Reilly were all but invisible at forward. The defense was porous, clumsy and frantic even before Boxx was sent off.

For a second consecutive World Cup, the United States was dismissed in the semifinals. It will now have to settle for the consolation of a third-place match on Sunday against Norway. Brazil, which received two goals from its wondrous forward Marta, advances to the final against defending-champion Germany.

Scurry, who had played only seven matches this year, appeared rusty in the early going. The decision to start her by Coach Greg Ryan was widely criticized as being unnecessary, disruptive and panicky. The switch not only contributed to the American defeat but may contribute to the insecurity of Ryan’s job.

His team, ranked No. l in the world, lost for the first time since March of 2006, but this defeat was as total as it was astonishing. And Ryan will be second-guessed by nearly everyone, including his players.

Perhaps more than anything, the defeat demonstrated just how talented and assured the previous teams of Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers were in winning the World Cup in 1991 and 1999, while this American side never truly reached its top form through the tournament.

A disappointed Briana Scurry could do little to prevent Leslie Osborne from deflecting the ball into her own goal. (Julie Jacobson/Associated Press)

In the rubble of Thursday’s defeat, Ryan’s decision to start Scurry looks suspect, but the coach had his reasons.

He was no different from a baseball manager playing the percentages with a certain hitter or pitcher. Previously, Scurry was 12-0 against Brazil, having pitched 8 shutouts. She was in goal for a friendly in June, when the United States defeated Brazil 2-0.

Even though Scurry is 36, she had surer hands, greater anticipation, quicker lateral movement and better reflexes than Solo. I thought she was more prepared to handle chaos in front of the goal. No one has responded more confidently and sturdily in the pressure situations of a World Cup.

Solo has never played against Brazil and, the game was too important to rely on such inexperience. If anything, Ryan could have replaced Solo with Scurry after Solo struggled in the World Cup opener against North Korea. That would have given Scurry a few games to recover her timing before the Americans faced their biggest obstacles.

It was not Ryan’s job to worry about team chemistry. It was his job to win. If some of Solo’s teammates were upset, that shouldn’t have been the coach’s concern. Clearly, though, his experiment failed, and support for Ryan will be thin.
On Thursday, Ryan also returned Osborne to the midfield to mark the Brazilian playmaker Daniela and to try to disrupt the opponent’s clever ball control.

In the last important match between these teams, the United States needed overtime to prevail, 2-1, in the gold medal game at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Brazil did not field its full team for the next two years and entered the World Cup as something of a question mark.

It became clear early on in this tournament, though, that the South Americans were serious contenders, becoming the only team to win each of its three games in the opening round. Yet Brazil had defeated the Americans only once in 22 matches, and its elegant style often devolved into a cynical game of fouling. In a 2-0 loss to the Americans in June at Giants Stadium, Brazil was flagged with five yellow cards.

Early on Thursday, it was the muscular style of the Americans that seemed to prevail. The United States’ play was bothersome to Brazil in midfield. Brazil’s players kept falling to the turf and arguing among each other. It appeared the team might become unnerved.

But the United States could never really gain the upper hand. In the 7th minute, Scurry got her first test. She rushed off her line on a free kick only to collide with Formiga. The ball bounced free but the danger quickly dissipated.

In the 20th minute, though, another American mistake became costly. On a corner kick by Formiga, Osborne failed to get her body in front of the ball as it bounced in the box. Instead of trying to clear the shot with her feet, Osborne went to her knees and headed the ball into her own goal, between a defenseless Scurry and Lori Chalupny, who was at the near post.

Seven minutes later, Marta sliced into the penalty area for Brazil. Stephanie Lopez grabbed her shorts, but Marta pulled away, stepped around Kate Markgraf and blasted a low shot with her left foot. Scurry dived to her left, got a hand on the ball but could not keep it out of the net. Shockingly, Brazil led 2-0.

“If she’s on her game, she makes this save,” Tony DiCicco, who coached Scurry and the United States to the 1999 World Cup title, said on ESPN2.

He spoke harshly of Ryan, saying, “I think he’s lost some credibility with his team.”

As the first half went to extra time, the United States suffered another blow on a poor decision by referee Nicole Petignat. Cristiane, the Brazilian forward, cut behind Boxx in midfield and clipped her feet, falling to the turf. Boxx did not cause the contact, but it was she who was penalized. She was handed her second yellow card and was ejected, forcing the United States to continue a player down for the remainder of the game.

During the World Cup final in 1999, it was Petignat who looked the other way and did not flag Scurry for coming off her line prematurely in defending penalty kicks against China. Thursday, Petignat made an ill-advised call. Now Boxx will be ineligible for Sunday’s consolation match.

The 10-player American side was put under tremendous pressure in the second half as it switched to a 3-4-2 formation. In the 56th minute, Cat Whitehill was caught upfield, leaving a gaping hole in central defense. Formiga found Cristiane wide open in front of the net, and Cristiane put Brazil insurmountably ahead 3-0.

In the 79th minute, Marta scored a beautiful goal, flicking the ball over her shoulder, spinning and running past Tina Ellertson and putting Brazil ahead 4-0. Ryan has said he can live with his decision to make such a rare goalkeeping change. Now we will see whether he can keep his job for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Petignat has been a horrible referee for years. She has made questionable calls in other big games notably the 99 Cup. There has to have been a better choice for this game. The send off of Boxx doomed the team. They played with their heads down and no energy for the 2nd half. I think the defensive subs were made cause Ryan knew the game was lost and didn’t want it to get too out of control on the scoreboard. What an ugly, yucky way to end a mediocre world cup. Marta is amazing. If the sexist Brazilians decided that they wanted to dominate both the women’s and men’s side they could.

No excuse for the US team, really! Simply put, Brazil played the best! Before the game, US coach said Brazilians were volent players. It’s definetely not true! Before Brazil scored the first time there was a very clear penalty kick for Brazil the referee pretended she didn’t see… Marta’s the spirit for Brazil! As long as Brazil prepares physically and mentally, US teams will never ever win again agains Brazil…

I know the U.S. was ranked number 1, but in every World Cup game I watched, the U.S. looked slow, did not pass the ball crisply, and relied upon “Hail Mary” passes to score. I doubt the extent these factors are attributable to the coach. Rather, I believe this squad was not up to snuff.

I think that this game was a great sign of how far women’s soccer around the world has come. That the US isn’t dominating anymore shows that other countries are making women’s soccer a priority. I hope that competition continues to be close, and hopefully Marta will come play for the new Women League in 2009!

Of course one cannot blame Scurry and of course the Brazilians are exceptionally talented. But a couple of statements about Ryan astonish me: “He was no different from a baseball manager playing the percentages with a certain hitter or pitcher”. You cannot possibly be comparing the kind of seamless inter-player mechanics of soccer with that of baseball, can you? And, second, “It was not Ryan’s job to worry about team chemistry. It was his job to win.” Again: good grief – that’s so wrong-headed a statement that I can only assume it was written in haste.

We witnessed this morning the passing of the baton from a former great power in women’s soccer, United States, to the next great power, Brazil. Yes, it was an ugly defeat for the US, with an unforced own goal by Leslie Osborne, a soft goal let in by Briana Scurry, and the erroneous sending off of Shannon Boxx by the Swiss referee, but the truth is that Brazil were the better team, and they were going to win this game even had those mishaps not befallen the US side.

The US coach, Greg Ryan has dug himself a deep hope from which he may not emerge. The decision to start Scurry in this game obviously misfired, but it was a dumb move all along. There was simply no upside to this decision. Even if Scurry had made some unbelievable saves, it would have been arguable that Hope Solo would have made the same saves. On the other hand, if Scurry turned out to be less than brilliant, or if the US lost the game, Ryan had left himself open to a lot of second-guessing. In the event, Scurry was far from brilliant, letting in a soft second goal when it still mattered, and displaying her usual lack of kicking skill and positioning sense. The fact that she looked shaky on long balls and had no reflexes may have come as a surprise to some, but not to those of us who saw her play against Brazil last June in Giant Stadium (which incidentally was her last game before today – an indictment of Ryan’s choice all by itself). Scurry has been fading since 1999. To put her in now, in the twilight of her career and after she had not played a game since June 23, was an idiotic decision.

The greater problem with Ryan, however, is illustrated by his decision to play Lori Chalupny in the middle of the midfield during the entire tournament. Chalupny is an aggressive player who never stops running, as the saying goes, but she lacks even the most rudimentary ball-handling skills. The middle midfielder is the player who is supposed to control the game and create chances for the offense. To choose a player who cannot receive the ball, who cannot make a decent pass, and who has no sense for the creative side of the game as the team’s middle midfield shows Ryan’s complete disdain for the idea that to play winning soccer a team must control the tempo of the game, must control the ball, and must build the attack from the defense to the midfield to the front line. Today’s game exposed the fatal weakness of Ryan’s notion that it is possible to play winning soccer against quality teams by thumping long, speculative, aimless balls upfield and hoping that something good will eventually come from the resulting chaos.

In a way, it is too bad that the weakness of Ryan’s approach to the game was overshadowed by the misfortunes and pratfalls that befell the US team today, because it was obvious from the first minute of this game (if not before) that the Ryan approach was bound to fail. The best thing that could happen to US soccer now is if someone other that Ryan took over leadership of the team, and started to instill a different approach.

Among other things, there must be some more skilled US players out there somewhere. This roster was sadly lacking in quality players. I have to believe that this lack of quality is a reflection of Ryan’s preference for aggressive, hard-working, “blue-collar” players, as opposed to showy, artistic ball-handlers. Soccer is supposed to be a beautiful game and, more often than not, the team of talented artists will prevail over the relentless physicality of players who are great athletes but not skilled soccer players. Best of all is to have a mix of both, but a team a bruisers, unaided by any playmakers, will not win against a good team.

Which leads me to my prediction for Sunday’s finals. Germany are actually a team of some very skilled players, as well as players who combine great physicality with great skill (i.e., Prinz), but they lack the flair and creativity of the Brazilians. As a result, I expect Brazil to defeat Germany. The Brazilians, when they really need it, can always produce a goal, and the Germans cannot. Whatever the breaks of the game may turn out to be, this Brazil team, which really is a great team, will find a way to win. And if that proves to be the case, then the cause of women’s soccer will be a winner as well.

No excuse – brasil were quicker and technically better. before the boxx red card, the us could not string together more than ONE pass. Really pitiful to watch. Brasil did cheat to get Boxx sent off — you could see the Brasiliera immediately hold up two fingers after falling over Boxx’s legs. Just a sidelight though — the game was already over at that point.

Ryan has to be gone as soon as the third-place game is over. Simply put, his panicky switching of keepers told his team that they weren’t good enough to beat Brazil — and they promptly went out and lived up to it.

Osborne’s own goal was inept. Would the defense have been so disorganized if Solo had been there? We’ll never know. Marta’s first goal proved that all of Ryan’s praise for Scurry’s reactions was misplaced, as that was the kind of goal that a second-tier keeper lets in.

Yes, Petignat’s sending off of Boxx was a brutal display of ineptitude on her part. Yes, it put the US team in a hole. But good teams can fight their way back — or at least make a game of it.

In the second half, down a player and clearly stripped of any belief in their own abilities, the US team looked like a pack of whipped puppies. The #1-rated team in the world should never look that bad, even down a player. Thanks, Coach Ryan (and his enablers), for showing us once again how much impact a poor national coach can have.

So much for a violent Brazil. The girls from Brazil kicked balls and some american pride. That Wammback girl should be competing on some boxing match because she sure likes to elbow anyone in sight.
Brazil once again teachs some arrogant team football(soccer, played with the feet) a good lesson
Way to go Brazil!

Marta…she is better than pele and maradona together…she is stunning, unbeliveable, the best of all times…the poor team of brazil beat the rich team of usa…beat? no, give them a big lesson of how to play soccer…dale dale marta

The brazilian women’s team played very well! The gae was very fantastic!!!!
Marta is the best.. but the brazilian women’s team have a long way to grow yet!
I think that they start to do this right now.. and maybe onde day, who knows, will be the best of the world.. like the men’s team that is 5 times winner of the world cup.

This is one of the worst articles I have read in the NYT. When a team wins 4-0 it has dominated a game. Stop whining about referees, bad goalies etc. and give the Brazilians the credit they deserve. We have a great final in place.

What a great one! So Brazilians are violent, but who gets redcarded? And of course, sure that´s why USA lost, isn´t it? Or maybe it isn´t! The most hilarious moment of the match just has to be Stephanie trying to bring Marta down in the box and simply being too incompetent even to get the 2nd penalty and hope ref would turn one more blind eye.
When you get beat 4 x 0 what´s the excuse???

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Goal, The New York Times soccer blog, will report on news and features from the world of soccer and around the Web. Times editors and reporters will follow international tournaments and provide analysis of games. There will be interviews with players, coaches and notable soccer fans, as well as a weekly blog column by Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore. Readers can discuss Major League Soccer, foreign leagues and other issues with fellow soccer fans.